


Through the Looking Glass

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Alice and Wonderland themes, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fingering, Fluff, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Kissing, Long Term Relationship, Magic Mirror - Freeform, Marriage, Oral Sex, Outdoor Sex, Porn With Plot, Severus Snape Lives, Smut, magical object, vague mentions of character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:14:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27538162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: A mirror sat on Hermione’s desk, taunting her. It had been passed down to late husband through his mother’ line. It was the last mystery of a life well lived.Severus and Hermione had a good life together, the photos and everything else in her home reminded of that.But, when she least expects it she figures out what the mirror actually does.When you reach the end of your life the only thing you want is more time with the person you loved.
Relationships: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61
Collections: Dirty Festivus 2020





	Through the Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cecemarty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecemarty/gifts).



> Thank you Zorak23 for Betaing this, and your encouragement throughout writing this. If anyone knows me well they know I love Alice in Wonderland, it’s one of my favorite fairytales and well I wanted to work within similar themes of that, but rather grown up.
> 
> I thought about the thing I would want most at the end of my life, and that would be more time with person I loved. More time when I was young, but also more time in general. 
> 
> I rarely if ever write PWP, so I did this time but with the emotions that can come with a slow burn. 
> 
> To my giftie thank you for being so open, and I hope you like it. 
> 
> Happy Holidays everyone.

“In the garden of my memory, in the palace of dreams...that is where you and I shall meet.” Alice Through the Looking Glass

Hermione reached for the mirror, the one Severus had given her so many years ago. Back when everything seemed as if it was new and so wonderful. When their life was laid out before them in a glorious path that they would take together. Long ago one of his relatives had made the mirror. However, neither of them had been able to figure out what it was for or even how it worked. 

The mirror had been a treasure to his family, and that had meant so much to the man. It didn’t matter that they had turned him away as a child and then later as a teenager. They were still his family and this mirror was one of the few things Severus had from them. Hermione set it aside, sighing softly as she did so. 

The life they had lived together had been a good one. A happy one. Long ago, this old house had been filled with the laughter of children, the aroma potions, and so many books. Hermione had long since given most of the books to those who could make more use of them. Severus was no longer around to make potions, and their children were long since grown and now had children. They had lives of their own. 

Hermione knew it was time to put the kettle on the stove and to make herself something for breakfast. However, she did not do any of that. Instead she made her way back to her bedroom. The mirror was drawing her back, calling to her. Hermione could feel it in her very bones. Something inside her screamed that maybe, _possibly,_ today would be the day that she would be able to figure out what it did and how it worked.

Hermione sat on her bed, picked up the mirror and reached into her pocket for her wand. They had tried so many spells over the years. A thought now stuck out to her,  _ Severus’ mother and the Prince family in general had been Romanian, so why wouldn’t the magic be too? _

_You were a bloody unspeakable Hermione,_ she thought. _And now, after all these years, you finally_ _remember this fact? Merlin, maybe you didn’t lose your wits as you got older. You simply stop caring about the things that no longer mattered._

  
  


Time held more weight when you could feel your own clock ticking away. Each moment was more precious than the last. 

_“Dezvăluie-te,”_ Hermione cried. It was foolish to simply tell the darn thing, _“reveal yourself,”_ but it was worth a shot. It wasn’t any more foolish than any of the spells they had used on it over the years. And yet the mirror shook within her hands. The glass became liquid, and then Hermione was falling, falling, falling through a sea of brightly coloured lights. It was like swimming through a rainbow or possibly even the big bang. But then, as soon as Hermione was in the stream of pure magic she was out of it and landing softly in the grass. 

_ Well that’s bloody weird,  _ she thought, staring at her hand which was no longer weathered with time and age. Her warm toned skin was as smooth as it had been when she was young. She reached up, tugging her wild curls into her face. They were no longer a silvery white, but the deep dark brown as it had been when she was young. 

Her knees didn’t ache. Her fingers and hands no longer stiffened with age. 

“Merlin,” she whispered. “Where am I?”

There was a castle to her right; it wasn't Hogwarts, or at least it didn’t seem to be. But there was a lake to her left. The water was blue in the bright sunlight above her head. Was this a dream, heaven, or maybe even a strange form of hell. 

Her mind supplied an odd piece of information from a lifetime ago.  _ Alice fell through the looking glass to wonderland, or maybe it was down a rabbit hole, but it didn’t truly matter, now did it? _

It was then that Hermione saw him. Severus was sitting under a tree reading a book. He was just as young as she seemed to be. The hardships of life no longer marred his body. It did not matter if this was a dream. It did not matter if this was a figment of the imagination of an old woman who had a little too much to drink last night. Not even if this was heaven or hell. 

_ Severus was here. _

Hermione stood, brushing the grass from her jeans, and ran to him. Laughing at the sheer joy of being able to run once more. Long ago it had seemed such a silly thing to run, but now it was as wonderful as anything ever had been and might ever be. 

“Severus,” Hermione called out. “I have missed you more than anything and I love you.” 

She finally reached his side, standing under the same tree he’d been sitting under. Severus was maybe forty, possibly younger. A pair of reading glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. Now that Hermione was closer, she could see that age had touched him in the form he had taken, but it did not matter. Not one bloody bit. Severus was just as wonderful as he had always been. 

“Hermione,” he said, smiling up at her setting his book aside in the grass. “So, you finally figured it out?” 

“Figured what out?” she asked. Hermione could only vaguely remember the life she had left behind. It seemed distant,  _ painful _ even. As if a dark cloud had hung over those decades she had spent without him.

“The looking glass of course,” Severus responded, pushing his reading glasses back up his nose. He stood up and rolled up the sleeves of his button-down shirt. His dark mark was faded and barely visible in the sunshine. “My grandfather always had an odd interest in death magic.”

“So, I am dead?” Hermione questioned him. She didn’t feel dead, not in the slightest. Honestly, she hadn’t felt this alive in decades. But then again, Hermione didn’t know what being dead felt like. Honestly though, no one living actually did, now did they?

“No, you are very much alive,” he said. “The looking glass doesn’t do what my grandfather thought it did. It doesn’t bring the dead back to life, nor does it kill you. It gives you one thing that you want more than anything. Once you discover the password, that is. What was it? He refuses to tell me and I am curious.”

“So is this even real?” She asked, “or is it all in my head?”

“What would this being in your head make this any less real? I am real and so are you. We might exist on a different plane, but energy is neither created nor is it destroyed.” Severus reached out, pressing his palm against hers, sighed softly as he did so, and shut his eyes. 

And souls are quite similar. Now, I answered your question, will you answer mine?” 

_“Dezvăluie-te,”_ Hermione muttered, Severus’ face wrinkled at the statement and he rolled his eyes. It seemed in even the afterlife he had refused to learn his family’s mother tongue. Her husband was ever the stubborn person who stuck to what he believed, as if he was clutching to it for dear life. “It means ‘reveal yourself’ in Romanian.”

He laughed softly, reaching for Hermione’s arm and pulling her close. “Of course he would make it something like that and not tell me how the bloody thing works. I was far too _English_ for his taste. If only I would have bothered to learn it. But that matters little now, it is the past. This about what you wanted the most, Mrs. Snape. What would that be?” 

Hermione knew the answer of why she and Severus were both here, together, as they once had been so long ago. “What I wanted more than anything, Mr. Snape, is more time... More time with you.” 

She reached up, her hands going to the back of his neck and knotting softly in his hair. Hermione pulled him down closer to her. 

  
  


“If I had a choice in wishes, Hermione,” Severus whispered. “I would have wished for the same. I would have wished for more time with you.” He leaned down the rest of the way meeting her in a kiss. Severus tasted like wine; he smelled like herbs and grass. 

His hands went to her hips; he pulled Hermione closer. He snaked under her coat, and then her shirt, trying to touch as much of her as he possibly could. Hermione’s fingers dropped from his neck, pulling away to catch her breath as she did so. 

Just as quickly, Hermione went to work on the buttons of his shirt, undoing them one by one. But once she reached the halfway point she gave up and ripped the shirt off him. The buttons scattered around them like raindrops into the grass. 

Severus helped Hermione out of her coat, throwing it to the ground. It shifted as it landed, turning itself into a blue checkered picnic blanket. Together they sat down on it and pulled themselves closer to the other once more. 

Severus tugged Hermione’s shirt over her head. Laying her down onto the blanket - his long fingers teasing her - he played her body like an instrument that he had spent a lifetime learning how to play. His lips followed. He teased her gently, sending shivers up her spine and shocks along her skin. 

Hermione’s fingers twisted into his inky black hair and held him in place. 

“Merlin,” Hermione cried, breathless. 

Severus sat up, pulling away from her slightly.

“That isn’t my name,” Severus muttered, placing his finger on her lips. Then just as quickly pulled it away. “Say my name. And don’t you dare say anyone else’s. I want you to remember who is doing this to you.” 

“Severus,” escaped her clenched teeth, as his long spider-like fingers undid the button and zipper. “Fuck.”

He yanked her trousers off her, “that is more like it. There will be time for fucking, but I happen to want to take my time. I want to enjoy every bloody second of it.”

Severus’ fingers were in her knickers, slipping inside of her, two of them filling her. Just as quickly he pulled the knickers down her legs and tossed them aside. Hermione stared up at him as he knelt, sitting back, just watching her. 

“Are you just going to continue?” Hermione asked him, laughing softly. She sat resting her chin in her palm and then reached out for him. “Or just spend the rest of the time we have together staring at me?” 

“Simply enjoying the view,” Severus drawled, resting his forehead against hers. They met once again, kissing, he undid her bra letting it fall away from her body. 

Hermione undid the button and zipper of his trousers. For a second she considered trying to do it with her teeth, but decided against it. Severus pulled away from her to stand, pulling off both his trousers and his pants off. 

Hermione shivered, not because of the cold, but because of everything that she was feeling. Part of it was how bloody long it had been since they had done this. The other bit of it was unspeakable and wonderful. They could not keep their hands off each other. 

She stood up once more, her hands reaching out for his body. Hermione began running her fingers down his chest. Severus shut his eyes at this, moaning softly at the feeling. She reached his waist, laying her hands open on his hips pulling them together and closer. They met once more, kissing as they did. His tongue invaded her mouth, a hand going to her curls, and softly tilted her head back. 

The sun warmed them; hanging high in the sky as they took their time and enjoyed every single moment of being together once more. Hermione had no desire to rush this - for fear it would bring their time together to an end. Truly knowing someone to the depths of their soul and beyond was a treasure of a far greater measure than gold or silver. True love left an imprint on your mind, body, and soul. 

His cock pressed against her belly, hard and needy. Well maybe they actually didn’t have all the time in the world. .  Hermione wrapped her hand around his hardness, teasing him with soft, barely there caresses. Severus’ hand wrapped around hers. He stopped her and pulled her hand off of him. 

“No,” he said through clenched teeth, as if he was trying to calm himself down. “I want to come inside of you, Mrs. Snape, and not anytime before.” 

“Well then, lay down, Mr. Snape,” Hermione murmured, resting her hand on his shoulder. “And that can be arranged.” 

Severus sat down on the blanket and then laid back, continuing to watch her. “I feel like the luckiest man to ever have existed.”

Laying down next to him, she said, “That is because you are. Just as I am the luckiest woman to have truly and totally loved you.” 

He pulled her on top of him. A squeal and laughter escaped Hermione’s lips. They were silenced by kissing once more. Sinking onto his cock, she reveled in the feeling of fullness and the rightness of having him inside her once more. Rising and falling, she took her pleasure from his body, but gave him just as much in return. 

His hands wrapped around her hips, feeling like branding irons searing into her skin. Severus was not controlling her, but helping Hermione along to move as she so desperately wanted to. They were both unable to tell where one began and the other ended. Moving his fingers to her clit, he drew small circles upon it. When he thrust his hips harder into her, a sharp cry fell from her lips. 

Severus groaned, but then shoved Hermione off of him. Leaning over her he entered her once more, wrapping her soft thighs around his hips. Brushing his hair out of his face and pulling him closer - Hermione kissed Severus. They brought each other closer and closer to their pleasure; seeking out their own and bringing the other along with them. Shocks and sparks danced over their skin where they touched. Pulling away from her kiss, he cried into her neck as he came. 

Hermione held onto him, clinging to him, not wanting to lose this moment. This instant in time and space that was just _them_ together once more. But time would always march on. Softening, he slipped out of her. He collapsed onto her gently, though most of his weight rested on his own arms. 

Severus just looked at her. His black eyes warm and soft. Gentle, kind, and open in a way the man barely had ever looked when he was alive. Severus kissed her again. As sweetly and as lovely as anything ever was and would be. There were no walls between them in this strange and odd place. This wonderland of sorts.

Deep in her soul Hermione wanted desperately to stay here forever. She clung to him, holding him close with her legs and arms wrapped around him, pulling him as close to her as she possibly could. He pulled away, breaking their kiss. 

Severus untangled their limbs once he caught his breath. Slipping down between her legs, his mouth was on her pussy. Hermione’s hands went to his hair without thought, tangling them in as she held him in place. His bloody tongue teased her, lapping at her core. 

“Gods,” Hermione cried. “Bloody fucking hell, Severus, I am so close. So bloody close.” 

Feeling as if the world might come crashing down around them, Hermione lay shivering, twitching, and crying out his name. It was all too much and not enough all at the same time. Not knowing whether or not to plead to him to stop or to beg him to continue.

Severus slipped two and then three fingers inside of her. His mouth was on her clit, teasing at first, just teasing Hermione with soft licks and then sucking on her hard. Her body was both too warm and far too cold. It was as if someone had set fire to her nerves, but the sun was setting, blurring her vision. Or it might be just how close she was. The night air started to send a chill over her. 

Hermione pulled him by his hair closer to her body; she cried out in a shrill voice that might even have been a shriek. But everything was just so muffled to her and yet what he was doing to her was so sharp. “I am close, so get on with it and stop fucking teasing me!” 

Sucking hard on her clit pressing into that  _ bloody  _ spot inside of her, Severus sent Hermione fully and totally over the edge. Her vision blurred, lights exploding behind her eyes, as she cried and screamed. Hermione’s body shook, becoming rigid and then everything just became so loose. The very world could end in this moment and Hermione wouldn’t give a damn. 

Severus made his way back up, pulling her close. He took Hermione into his arms and hers went around him. Laying her head on his chest, his lips kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, and then finally tilting her head up to kiss her lips softly. This was as truly and surely as nothing else had ever been. There was something so tender about this. They were too tired to make love once more. A blanket appeared, covering them both.

They came back to earth together in each other's arms. This was what loving someone completely and truly was. Wanting to spend every single day, every single moment, and every single bloody second with them. Their greatest wish and greatest desire was only to have more time with the other.

That was the crux of it - you are only given so much time with someone you love. But, like a glutton laid out with a feast before you, the only thing that you would desire was more of it. Hermione slipped off to sleep in Severus’ arms, desperate for  only this time to go on forever, but knowing it not to be. Though she clung to these moments, in the land through the looking glass. 

********************** 

Hermione watched as Severus dressed, pulling on his pants and trousers. The magic of this place had reattached the buttons to his shirt. His long pale fingers redid them one by one. Sitting on the long grass dressed in her own clothing, she wanted to pull her husband down once more and make love to him.

But Hermione didn’t. There were far more important things to do.

“How are children?” Severus asked, as he tied his hair back, braiding it loosely. “And the grandchildren?” 

His hair hung down his back, long like a rope as it had done throughout their marriage - one of the changes he had made after the war, trying to set the pain and hardship of it all behind. That it was simply surviving. That he was no better than a corpse walking around that no one had bothered to put a bloody stake into its heart. 

“The children are well,” Hermione said smiling up at him. “Rose has spent her years raising her children. Our grandchildren, but they are both grown now. Her son is called Severus and her daughter Leonora. He is going to go into the Auror department. She is going to be an Unspeakable as I was. She also says she wants to one day become Minister of Magic. Now Rose wants to teach Charms at Hogwarts, and I think that she’ll get the position. 

“Anthony is the trickier one. He still hasn’t yet married, but I support him in every single way I can. That might, however, change soon. He’s been seeing Jamie and they seem rather quite happy. He’s running your old shop now and helps me as much he can. Everyone is happy, but like me they miss you so very much.” 

“I watch them sometimes,” he whispered. “But time passes so differently in the beyond.” 

“So you don’t call it heaven?” Hermione asked. “So there is no God?”

“You know I cannot answer such a question, don’t you? It is more like the land beyond the rainbow or even wonderland. I am sad, Hermione, that you shall join me soon, but happy one day we will never be parted again.” A sigh escaped Severus’ lips, his breath coming out in puffs. The air was far colder than it had been yesterday. 

Hermione stood reaching out taking him in her arms. “I am both sad that soon I will part from them, but grateful I will be with you once more. They are strong and I know they will survive it. Just as we all did when we lost you.” 

“It is time for you to go,” Severus said, and then he kissed her forehead. “This is not goodbye, but I will see you soon.”

“I love you, Severus, with every single part of my heart and soul.”

Severus bent down, reaching for the looking glass that sat near his feet, and handed it to Hermione. “You must simply think about going home.”

Hermione did as she was told, yet nothing happened. 

“What’s wrong with it?” She cried. “Why is it not working?”

“Because I was correct,” said someone in the distance. The man looked quite a bit like Severus, though his hair was wavy and silver. His face was sharper. His eyes were dark, nearly black, just like her husband’s, but without the warmness. The man’s gaze left Hermione feeling like a wolf was stalking her. “The mirror only allows those who are close to death to use it.”

“Grandfather,” Severus snarled. “So, you made this?” He chucked it to the ground. Instead of shattering, the thing bloody well bounced, like a freaking rubber ball. It landed softly a distance away from them. 

“No I did not,” Septimius said, far calmer than his grandson. 

  
  


“However, your grandmother did,” the man continued. “She was dying, and we were both quite young. Amara imbued it with her magic, making it into something that I could look forward to if I lived a good life: seeing her once more. Her last? words were, _I forgive myself._

“Upon my death I left it to your mother, but she left her magic behind when she married your father. Eileen turned her back on what made her my daughter and a Prince, so like many things of mine, it went to you, her son and my grandson.”

“Nothing beyond this went to me!” Severus cried, picking the mirror up once again shaking it. The thing vanished from his hands as if it had never existed at all. “Where has it gone, Septimus?” 

Septimius stepped closer to them, his footsteps sharp and stalking, his silver-coloured hair getting caught into the wind. But he held his hands up to show he meant no harm.

It didn’t settle Hermione, not one bloody bit. 

“I am your grandfather, Severus,” the old man growled. “I know I wasn’t there for you as should have been. But I swear I wanted to take care of you, and your mother for that matter. I do not know why you didn’t end up with your proper inheritance. But I have a bloody guess.”

“Dumbledore,” Hermione whispered, the very idea sickening her. The headmaster wasn’t as good in her eyes as he had once been. As an adult, she was able to see him as he actually was: a rather pungent shade of grey. 

Severus shook his head and covered his face with his hands. “It doesn’t matter, Septimius, answer the freaking question about the mirror.”

The old man finally spoke. “Back to the land of the living. Enjoy this you two… You have forever and not everyone can say that. Hermione, you must simply speak what you wish for the unlocking key to be. On the mirror that is. For your daughter, Rose, who I believe you have left it to?” 

“Yes,” she said. “I have left it to her.”

“Then get it on it witch,” the old man laughed. 

Severus growled sharply, stepping forward to push the man aside with his shoulder. “Do not speak to Hermione like that. You have no right to!”

“Severus,” Hermione muttered, taking his face in her hands. Her thumbs brushing along his cheeks. “What does he matter? We have what we wanted: to be together. And if he is right? Then it will work. If it doesn’t? Well then it is no harm to us.”

He nodded and then placed his hands upon her own. Severus took them, bringing one to his lips, and kissed each of her knuckles. “You have a point; so what will you say for the spell upon it?”

_ “Dezvăluie-te mie și arată-mi secretele tale,”  _ Hermione said, thinking about the mirror as she did so. Seeing it in her mind, sitting on her bedside table as it surely was now. 

“What does that mean?” Severus asked. “I caught,  _ ‘reveal yourself,’  _ but nothing else.” 

“I said _ , ‘reveal yourself and show me your secrets _ . _ ’” _

“Are you sure Rose will be able to figure this out?” He asked. 

“Yes,” she said. “She is our daughter, after all, and happens to be the one who taught me the language in the first place. Rose is proud to be part Romanian, proud to be part of the Prince family, just as she is her Muggle heritage. She’s tough, she’s strong, and she’s proud.”

“Just like you,” Severus mused, holding her close.

“Maybe,” Hermione whispered. “But she reminds me so much of you. Anthony might figure it out first; however, he’s more interested in things like this. Do you want to stay here? Or do you want to go?” 

“I want to take a walk with you in that garden over there and we can figure the rest out together,” he said. “We have forever to do that, now don’t we?” 

Taking his hand, Hermione said, “That we do.” Together they walked through the garden and into forever. Death is only the beginning after all, isn’t it? 

  
  



End file.
